Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

Michael Gordon is an accomplished consumer finance lawyer with more than 20 years of experience as a law firm partner, senior federal regulator, and fintech general counsel. His practice includes consumer finance and fintech, banking and bank partnerships, consumer and commercial credit, payments, regulatory strategy, risk management and corporate governance matters for a range of clients. Michael is a practical, business-focused lawyer with wide-ranging experience in private practice, government, and as a client. He has established a reputation for helping financial institutions and service providers anticipate and respond to a complex and ever-changing regulatory environment.

Michael also has extensive experience representing corporations, institutions, and individuals in congressional investigations, executive branch and commission inquiries, regulatory proceedings, and related litigation.  Michael has held senior positions in two Committees of the U.S. House of Representatives.  He led investigations and hearings as Chief Investigative Counsel of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, a committee with jurisdiction over health care, consumer protection, energy, food and drug safety, and communications.  He also served as Senior Investigative Counsel on the Committee on Oversight and Reform, the principal oversight committee of the House, where he led investigations into the causes and effects of the financial crisis.  Michael has also served as counselor to the General Counsel of the U.S. Department of the Treasury.  

Prior to joining Bradley, Michael served as general counsel and chief compliance officer for a fast-growing fintech and renewable energy company, where he oversaw legal, compliance, and regulatory functions. He is also the former chair of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) Practice Group at a leading national firm, where he helped clients successfully navigate regulatory compliance issues, supervisory exams, and enforcement matters before the CFPB, other federal and state bank regulators, and the FTC. In that role, Michael advised banks, lenders (mortgage, student, auto, credit card, personal, and small business), loan servicers, debt buyers, credit bureaus, online lenders, fintech investors, and fintech firms on financial regulatory issues.

Michael was on the start-up team that established the CFPB and served for five years in senior roles, including senior counselor to the director. He advised the director and senior agency officials on how best to utilize the CFPB’s authorities and whether to resolve significant matters through supervisory action or public enforcement.

Bar Admissions

• District of Columbia, 1998
• Illinois, 1997

Education

• University of Michigan Law School, J.D., 1997, Note Editor, Journal of Law Reform
• Harvard College, A.B., 1991, cum laude